By Carron J. Phillips
This is the fourth in a series of 10 stories celebrating the 10th anniversary of the APSE Diversity Fellowship.
On Sunday, Sept. 28, 2014, I applied to be a member of what became the greatest class in the history of APSE’s Diversity Fellowship.
Don’t debate me. It’s a fact.
Those seven years feel so long ago but also seem just like yesterday. In my cover letter, I wrote about why it was so important for me to go to grad school to get my master’s in journalism five years after undergrad and how it had led me to that moment – as I was serving as the assistant sports editor of The News Dispatch in Michigan City, Indiana, a newspaper that didn’t have any affiliation with APSE.
“This fellowship opportunity needs someone who is fast on their feet, teachable, open to criticism, and willing to learn. I’d love to be a participant in the 2014 APSE Diversity Fellowship Program,” is what I wrote back then.
It’s still true.
And in my essay that was required for the fellowship application, I talked about how I was there in the summer of 2011, when Michael Anastasi told me he was going to announce the fellowship at the annual convention in Boston, as he was about to become president. I also wrote about how it felt living in my father’s basement at the age of 30 with two degrees and no job for 29 months as I couldn’t get hired.
It fueled me in 2014 and still does to this day. It’s the reason why I’m still fast on my feet, still teachable, still open to criticism, and still willing to learn. The single most important thing about this fellowship has been connection. Through the way the program is built, you get to build connections with the majority of the sports editors in the country on multiple occasions throughout the process. You finally get a chance to put faces to names, as everyone now knows who’s on the rise. That opportunity alone is invaluable for minorities trying to succeed in an industry that far too often is white and male.
Secondly, the fellowship connects you with the other fellows – whether that be the ones in your class or the ones that came before and the many that will come after. Too many times in our careers as we look to move upwards we put too much emphasis on the ones that do the hiring instead of the ones right next to us, not realizing that one day the ones “on the rise” will be the ones making all the decisions. The fellowship puts you in a position to say, “Oh, I know him/her, let me shoot them a text.”
Lastly, the APSE Diversity Fellowship puts a spotlight on the ones that too often get overlooked. Can you imagine a world in which this industry was without the talents of Alex Iniguez, Kami Mattioli, Dana Sulonen, and Carron J. Phillips?
I couldn’t, and neither can you. Carron.phillips@gmail.com
Alex Iniguez: When I got the Diversity Fellowship, I was a copy editor and page designer at the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette. The fellowship put me in front of so many people who knew my aspirations, and an external job offer led to a promotion in Pittsburgh, where I became assistant sports editor of digital at the Post-Gazette, and after that, assistant sports editor and then deputy sports editor. I left that job to become an assistant sports editor at The Seattle Times, where I oversaw coverage of, over the course of two and a half years, University of Washington football, the Mariners, the Sounders, the Kraken and the Seahawks. When the pandemic hit, the metro department needed help, and I jumped at the chance. I worked four months in Metro during spring and summer of 2020, assisting on coronavirus and protest coverage, before returning to sports for the NFL season. Late in the season, I moved back to Metro as the morning news editor, a role I held for four months before receiving an offer from The Athletic. At The Athletic, I’m a senior editor, overseeing coverage of the Chicago Blackhawks, Pittsburgh Penguins, New York Islanders, Buffalo Sabres and New Jersey Devils.
The APSE Diversity Fellowship was huge for me. It gave me a massive confidence boost and introduced me to so many great people who wanted to help get me where I wanted to be. It allowed me to understand our field in a broader context, and more importantly, my place in it. It was a career-changing experience, and I’ll be grateful for it forever. Alex.iniguez@gmail.com
Kami Mattioli: I worked at Sporting News when I first got into the fellowship, and I stayed there for two years after the fellowship ended. Since then I’ve spent four years at IMG and just started at Bally Sports in March. For me, the most valuable part of the APSE fellowship was getting facetime with industry peers, which has helped me navigate new opportunities in the years since. What makes APSE so valuable are the connections that you make along the way. kmattioli@gmail.com
Dana Sulonen: When I arrived for my diversity weekend in 2015, I was also celebrating my 34th birthday. What a way to spend a birthday weekend, right? But when we got to dinner our first night in Indianapolis, my three other diversity fellows — Kami Mattioli, Carron Phillips and Alex Iniguez — had cupcakes for me to celebrate. I knew then I had met a group of friends I’d have with me for life.
And I do. We have the group text to prove it.
And of course, we did a birthday shot at the Noodle. Because that’s how you celebrate a birthday on diversity weekend in Indianapolis. Don’t worry. Jorge bought. It seems so long ago that I was a part of the diversity program, and in some ways, it feels like yesterday. How could it be six years ago that I was standing in front of a group of mentors and peers
giving a speech I agonized for months over? How was it that long ago that I last had St. Elmo’s?
A lot has changed since then for me, both professionally and personally. Professionally, I had two other jobs as a sports editor after being a Fellow (USA TODAY Network Tennessee and the Detroit Free Press). I was a part of and led award-winning staffs, led the Southeast Region and, if not most important, kept the hospitality room hospitable for years within APSE. However, in 2019, it was time for me to step away, and I left my position in Detroit to pursue my master’s degree in journalism. My goal is to one day teach the next crop of sportswriters. Maybe one day they’ll tell me that they were chosen for the diversity program.
That will be the day my career officially becomes full circle. But what is the old saying? I thought I was out … but they kept pulling me back in. In the spring of 2021, I (kind of) entered back into the media game as a part of the
content team for USA TODAY Ventures, where I work with papers across the country helping put on the USA TODAY High School Sports Awards. And if you heard that I’m also writing contemporary romance books and
became famous on TikTok, you heard correctly. But let’s be real, does that surprise anyone?
Though I might not be a sports editor in title anymore, it will always be in my blood. And so much of what I learned through the diversity program and APSE is a part of that. The diversity program changed my life and I’m so proud to be a part of the 10 years. dmsulonen@gmail.com
Editor’s note: This group has really talked the talk, and they are walking the walk. They spent much of their fellowship year debating who should be the lead singer (even though they didn’t necessarily sing very well).
